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Saturday, May 29, 2010

I brought my kids to Zoo Negara yesterday since it was a Public Holiday (Wesak). And this is also my own rule for every my kid must visit Zoo at least once, as to let them get to know how the animals looks like. . So this was my 3rd times but for youngest son Desmond was 1st time to Zoo, he was really excited to get to know all animals in the Zoo, but my daughter felt so boring as she has been to Zoo for 3 times already, hehehe...This zoo still looks the same when every time I visited, the only thing difference is the animals are getting older, hahaha..

Thursday, May 27, 2010

At first I think to cook Hainanese fried chicken rice, but a bit hesitate to fry the whole bird of chicken and very oily, end up I roasted the chicken and cooked turmeric rice, something simple and delicious.

1. Marinate chicken pieces with all ingredients for 2 hours2. Arrange chicken on a baking pan, cover with aluminium foil.3. Bake at preheated oven at 180c for 30mins.4. Remove foil and bake at 200c for 20mins or until golden brown.5. Serve with Turmeric rice.

1. Heat 2tbsp oil in a wok, sauté shallots and ginger.2. Add in rice and all seasonings, quickly mix well and turn off heat.3. Transfer rice to a rice cooker, add in water and pandan leaves, set to cook.4. Sprinkle some fried shallots and serve with roasted five spices chicken.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

This is too easy to cook, thus no recipe need to be provided. Just add sweet potatoes pieces in a big pot of water, add few slices of young ginger and pandan leaves (screwpines leaves), cook for about 30mins over medium flame and add sugar to taste.

Monday, May 24, 2010

I don't know much about fish, usually my mom help me to buy fresh fish from my kampung (my hometown is a small fishing village), she help to clean and cut and freeze it for me. The other day when I went back to hometown, my mom told me she managed to buy for me a very fresh and big fish, about 5kg in weight, the fish name in Mandarin is 马友鱼, sorry I don't know the English name, this is the fish image (Latest update-Thanks Pete informed me the English name of this fish, it is called as Threadfin or Kurau in Malay).Since the fish is too big for my family at one go, I separated into four parts, I use the 1st part (fish body) to cook this yummy sweet and sour fish. Later I will share with you how I cook for the rest of the fish parts.

1. Season fish meat with soy sauce, salt, sesame oil and set aside for 10mins.2. Coat fish with corn starch/tapioca flour. Deep-fry in hot oil till cooked and crispy. Remove and place on a serving plate.3. Heat up oil, saute garlic and gingers until fragrant.4. Add yellow and green capsicums and tomato. Stir-fry briskly. Pour in sauce ingredients and bring to a boil.5. Add thickening, then add in fried fish and mix well.6. Dish out and serve hot.

** I can't get good and clear photo especially when I take picture for the dishes that I cooked for dinner, due to the low light condition in the kitchen during evening time. So no choice, I need to use very high ISO (ISO 800) and use the Canon software to do some adjustment, please accept this poor pictures..

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

This is a typical grandmother and old fashion of Chinese dish, as Hokkien people like me call this dish as "Lo Bah" or "Tau Yu Bah". When I was a kid, I just like to mix the gravy with rice, and like the hard-boiled eggs but not the pork belly.

This time I use a very old (at least 50years old) and the only one bowl left from my grandmother time to present this authentic Chinese soy sauce pork (Tau Yu Bah) to you..

1. Heat oil in a wok, add in sugar and stir fry till sugar melted and turned brown.2. Add in garlic, star anise, cloves and cinnamon, mix well.3. Add in pork belly, slight fry both sides.4. Add in water, and follow by the rest of hard-boiled eggs, firm tofu and fried beancurd pork rolls.5. Add in the seasoning and cook over low flame for 1hour or until gravy become thicker.6. Serve with rice and dip with chilli sauce.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Today Desmond turns 6, he was celebrating with his classmates in the Kindergarten. He likes Spiderman, so I decorated Spiderman on his Birthday cake with my poor cake decoration skill. I baked a basic cocoa sponge cake and decorated with fresh cream.

Today I made this cake again, as I'm going to balik kampung (go back hometown) tomorrow to celebrate Mother's day with my mom, my mom prefer butter cake. Why i celebrate Mother's day after 1 week later, this is because my sisters have to celebrate Mother's day for their mother-in-law on the actual day. They have no choice, in Chinese family, husband's family comes first...I have no MIL, and I prefer we celebrate this day with our mom together.

In order to get better flavour, I baked today and keep this cake till tomorrow..

This time, I added blue poppy seeds, this is also my 1st time use poppy seeds, just like to present something new for my mom .

1. Sift cake flour and baking powder in a bowl.2. Beat butter with the sugar until pale and fluffy.3. Add in egg one at a time, then add in lemon rind, mixing well.4. Fold in the flour and milk, combine well. Last add in poppy seeds, stir well.5. Pour the mixture into cake tin.6. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180C for 50mins.7. While baking the cake, start to prepare the lemon glaze.8. Mix sugar and lemon juice and cook over low heat till sugar dissolved, add in lemon rind, set aside.9. When cake done, remove cake from the oven and prick all over with a skewer.10. Pour over the lemon glaze over the hot cake.11. Ideally to leave cake to set overnight, to get better flavour.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I never think to get my hands on making Kaya (coconut jam) because it is so easily to get it from supermarket here. Anyway, I tried to make Pandan Kaya for the 1st time, and it turns out so well, I like the jade green colour from the fresh pandan leaves (screwpine leaves), no artificial colour added, smooth paste and full of coconut aroma.

my home grown pandan (screwpine leaves), very tiny in size..

started to cook over the double boiler.

about 15mins

about 45mins, colour getting darker

Done, with nice jade green colour

Recipe adapted from Kitchen Corner. I agreed with her, I like this recipe too because it don't need to be stirred all the time with double boiling cooking method. Thanks Grace for kind sharing.

1. Add mixture A into mixture B became kaya mixture. Stir and mix well.
2. Sift the kaya mixture into another mixing bowl (stainless steel preferred).
3. Place mixing bowl over another pot of boiled water on low heat, stir kaya mixture occasionally.(Do not stop too long, 1-2mins intervals)
4. It took at least 1hour to cook till desired thickness. Cool completely before store in a clear jar and keep in the fridge.

My note:
Since my home grown organic pandan leaves size is very small, I increased the pandan leaves to 14pcs. At the beginning, the colour of kaya mixture is very pale in green, but the colour will turn darker and darker, you will get very nice jade green colour at the end. The volume of kaya will be reduced at least 1/3 from the initial kaya mixture.